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Dozens killed when passenger jet crashes while landing at South Korean airport

Updated on: December 28, 2024 / 9:52 PM EST / CBS/AP

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South Korean emergency officials say that at least 47 people are dead after a plane caught fire during landing at an airport in the country's south.

The fire engulfed the Jeju Air passenger jet carrying 181 people when it skidded off the runway — just after landing at the airport in the southern city of Muan — and struck a barrier. The country's emergency office said its landing gear appeared to have malfunctioned. 

The National Fire Agency says that a total of 47 people on board have been found dead as a result of the incident.

The agency earlier said that emergency workers had pulled out two people — one passenger and one crew member. It said it deployed 32 fire trucks and several helicopters to contain the fire.

Firefighters carry out extinguishing operations on an aircraft which veered off a runaway at Muan International Airport in Muan, South Jeolla Province, South Korea, on Dec. 29, 2024.   Yonhap via REUTERS

Yonhap news agency reported the plane collided with a fence after veering off the runway. Emergency officials said they were examining the cause of the fire. Local TV stations aired footage showing thick pillows of black smoke billowing from the plane engulfed with flames.

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According to Reuters, acting South Korean President Choi Sang-mok has ordered an all-out rescue response, his office said. Choi only became acting president Friday, replacing the previous acting president, Han Duck-soo, following Han's impeachment. It all comes in the wake of the government crisis caused by the Dec. 3 martial law declaration from former President Yoon Suk Yeol, who was later impeached as well. 

On Christmas Day, 38 people were killed and 29 more injured when an Azerbaijan Airlines plane bound from the Azerbaijani capital of Baku to the Russian city of Grozny crashed in Aktau, Kazakhstan. On Saturday, Russian President Vladimir Putin issued an apology for the crash, and the Kremlin said in a statement that air defense systems were firing near Grozny airport as the airliner "repeatedly" attempted to land there. It did not, though, explicitly say one of these hit the plane.

A U.S. official told CBS News there were early indications a Russian anti-aircraft system may have struck the plane in a region where Ukrainian and Russian forces have traded drone and rocket fire for months.